The Division is a video game based on the idea that America would fall apart in days if somebody put a virus on our cash. It’s a concept that’s ridiculous on paper, but Patrick Clair makes it feel creepily realistic in the above video.

Clair is a motion graphic designer that you know best from his work on True Detective, and he was hired by Ubisoft to set up just how America is a train wreck when the game’s massively-multiplayer third-person shooting picks up. Of note is that the graphic refers to actual historical ideas and events. Dark Winter actually happened, although the extent of the exercise was a bit exaggerated in the video, and Directive 51 freaks out whoever is scared of the President this week.

The time frame is also somewhat condensed; it’s harder to knock the system out of whack than you might think. Still, the entire idea is to get you ratholing toilet paper and figuring out which of your neighbors might turn into a Mad Max style scavenger, so it’s pretty effective that way. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go buy all the canned goods at Costco.

I used to live in Houston and after Hurricane Katrina kicked the shit out of New Orleans, I started putting together an emergency preparedness kit. It has 1 month of food (canned & dry), medical supplies, spare propane (for heat and cooking) along with lots of other handy things for when the power goes out. Most importantly… 500 rds of ammo for each of my pistols (.40 Glock, 9mm Glock), 500 shells of mixed birdshot and buckshot for my Browning BPS and 1000 rds for my AR-15. I’m not a doomsday prepper, but the Army taught me many times it’s better to have something and not need it than to need it not have it. More importantly, don’t let people take your shit if you’re prepared and they’re not.

Is it odd that before watching the video I assumed that you meant a computer virus (rather than an actual virus) wiping out money that basically exists on hypothetically and thought “what’s so ridiculous about that?”

True story: when Chrono Trigger was out, I was watching my brother play it – please note it was the mid-90s, I was in 5th grade, and not into gaming that much then. When it was revealed that Lavos would destroy the world in 1999, I took that as something that could and will happen. God, I was scared and gullible

Now, if you excuse me, I need to look up on how to make my own bubble-boy suit and learn how to survive the apocalypse properly. And hoard. There will be hoarding.